When we take your workers compensation case, we make recovering benefits for you our priority!
When you are injured at work, workers’ compensation is the mandatory insurance that your employer uses to pay for your injuries. Because of that insurance, you won’t be able to sue your employer if you are hurt on the job.
However, there are specific conditions that must be met in order for you to receive workers’ compensation benefits. Just because you were injured at work does not necessarily mean that you are eligible for workers’ compensation benefits.
Eligibility for Worker Comp Benefits
To be entitled to recover from injuries sustained on the job, those injuries must occur while working according to the scope of your employment. For instance, if you are a metal worker and you sustain burn injuries while welding something, you would be eligible to collect workers’ compensation. If you are injured while you are at work by doing something outside of the scope of your employment, you might not be eligible to collect. That is why having a St. Louis workers’ compensation attorney on your side is so important.
There are different types of benefits that you may be able to collect when you are injured on the job. There are many things that you are entitled to according to Missouri’s state workers’ compensation laws.
Payment for Lost Wages
If you are hurt while working, and are unable to work due to the injury, you are entitled to collect for the time that you are not able to work. Temporary total disability benefits allow you to collect if you can’t work in full capacity after your injury. If your employer can find other ways to accommodate you and have you work in a different capacity earning the same wage, you might not be eligible to collect workers’ compensation benefits. You can recover payment for lost wages for as long as your physician deems you not able to work. If you return to work and you are paid less due to your diminished capacity, then you will be eligible to collect temporary total disability.
Disability Benefits
Permanent partial disability is when you can no longer perform in the capacity you could before your injury and the jobs you are capable of performing earn a lesser wage. If you can no longer work at any job due to severe injuries, then you may be entitled to collect permanent total disability. That means that your injuries are serious enough to disable you from working at all going forward. Permanent total disability typically means that you can either receive weekly payments for the rest of your life from your company’s insurance company, or that you can negotiate a lump sum that will cover your expenses indefinitely.
If the injury you sustained while working is combined with other prior disabilities due to permanent partial disability, then you might have to file a “claim for compensation” to go against the second injury fund to receive permanent total disability.
Although you can’t sue your employer if you are injured on the job, workers’ compensation is the safety net to care for you going forward. Before you negotiate with any workers’ compensation insurance carrier or accept any payments, consult a St. Louis workers’ compensation attorney to ensure that you receive all that you are entitled to.
Law Office of James M. Hoffmann
When we take your case, we make recovering benefits for you our priority, and we put decades of experience, a proven record of success and a client focused approach behind your workers’ compensation case.